According to The Scare Factor, Ohio is home to 144 haunted houses, with 11 added since last year. The website lists California as runner-up with 132 and then Illinois with 123.
Among local places, Akron’s Haunted Schoolhouse and Laboratory checks in at No. 5 on The Scare Factor’s rankings of best haunted haunts. Canton’s Factory of Terror follows at No. 6, with the Chippewa Lake Slaughterhouse and Mansfield’s Blood Prison at Nos. 7 and 8.
The scariest of the scary, according to the website, is Fear Columbus, followed by the Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati.
The site bases its rankings on places it has reviewed, visited or that are popular. Though it clearly ranks them numerically, it says, “This is not a ‘best of’ list.” Hmm, that’s kind of scary.
There are numerous attractions within driving distance offering everything from haunted hayrides to themed weekends and elaborate multi-house experiences. Todd Stumpf
The following is a list of some of the haunted places within a 30- to 45-minute drive of the area, depending on where you start:
Forest of Screams, Medina
1662 Medina Road (state Route 18), Medina, 3 miles west of I-71.
Dates: Weekends through Nov. 1.
Hours: Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to midnight and Sundays from 7-10 p.m. (box office closes 30 minutes earlier each day).
Tickets: $35 Fridays and Saturdays and $32 Sundays.
Speed Pass: $45/$42 gets you in faster, not first.
Attractions: Haunted Hayride, Haunted Trail and Haunted House, all for one price.
Website: www.Forestofscreams.com.
Chippewa Lake Slaughterhouse
5665 Chippewa Lake Road, Chippewa Lake, 5 miles north of I-76/I-71 interchange.
Dates: Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 8.
Hours: 7:30 p.m. to midnight.
Tickets: $30 through Oct. 11, $32 Oct. 12 through Nov. 1 and $30 Nov. 8.
Attractions: “Hollywood-quality” sets and professional actors, 70,000 square feet of horror.
Website: www.Slaughterhouseohio.com.
Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse
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Signs like this one spotted along the highway outside Jarvis popped up throughout Haldimand County during Shelley Ann Bentley’s successful mayoral campaign in 2022. Some of the signs have stayed put ever since, conveying some residents’ continued opposition to building 15,000 homes on industrial land in Nanticoke. Photo by J.P. Antonacci /Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Students of the Lenapehoking Reestablishment Project’s (LRP) Indigenous Youth Program performed and explained the origin stories of various pow-wow dances during Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, Oct. 14. 
